If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world, not some mystical mumbo-jumbo psycho-babble word salad. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT, aka GMT). Location for all mundane charts is set for the Great Pyramid at Giza; the choice being strictly arbitrary in any case. Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.

PLEASE NOTE: This month’s forecast incorporates elements of (and refers to) the complete version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (34 8-1/2 x 11" illustrated pages); focused, amplified and elaborated with details for the month as appropriate. The full version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights is available in hard copy by mail ($75) or as a PDF document by email ($50). Advance orders for the 2020 World Forecast Highlights are now being taken as well: $65 for the PDF version, $85 for the hard copy. (Remember: as always, the 2020 edition will be embargoed until December 31, 2019 to keep the copycats at bay. You will receive a paid invoice for your order in timely fashion, but your copy of the forecast won't be sent until December 31.) Orders may be phoned in toll-free anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761, and charged to any major credit or debit card. Orders may also be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the AstroPro PayPal order page.

"We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there."
-- Warsan Shire
 

October is bound to be one of those ‘big news’ months, a continuation of the two major trends that took center stage the month before. The last week of September brought the official beginning of the US Presidential impeachment process, as declared by Speaker Pelosi on Tuesday the 24th. It was one of the two most significant news items of the month – but the only one to get major media attention.

You probably didn’t even notice the first one – but Wall Street did. It happened the week before, on Tuesday the 18th. That was the day the Federal Reserve had to step in and rescue the US financial system, with a total $125 billion cash injection over a two-day period.

The Fed wasn’t being generous. It was acting to save US banks, which didn’t have enough available cash to meet their short-term funding needs. Cash was so short that the banks were paying 10% interest for overnight loans from the so-called "repo market" – more than four times the official Fed rate.

To keep the financial machinery greased well enough to keep running, the Fed is now committed to additional massive cash infusions into the banking system for several more weeks.

Financial experts are not in agreement on the cause or the solution of the recent cash crunch. But it’s clearly not a good sign that nothing like this has happened since the beginning of the "Great Recession" in 2008 (a euphemism for the first Great Depression of the 21st Century). I trace the foreshocks of that fiasco to the derivatives crisis heralded by the collapse of the Northern Rock bank in 2006 – the last time we had a waning (270°) Jupiter-Neptune square. Until this year, that is. Jupiter and Neptune have been in this configuration on and off since January, with exact passes on January 13, June 16 and September 21 – a scant three days before the Fed’s latest rescue attempt. This is far from over. Saturn’s approaching alignment with Pluto (exact this coming January 12) points to an intensified financial crunch.

None of this comes as a surprise if you read pages 1-6 in my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (published in December 2018), where I described the Saturn-Pluto conjunction as heralding “a contraction of wealth and production, a rise in oppression.” This is part of an ongoing process, which I’m outlining in my forthcoming 2020 World Forecast Highlights. The story is far from over!

More Trump Trauma

As for the Trump impeachment inquiry, this too comes as no surprise to regular readers. I first broached the subject on pages 11-12 of my 2018 World Forecast Highlights (published in December 2017):

"Apart from a major Trump tantrum – which would not be out of character for him at any time, let alone under this kind of eclipse activation – the odds of his removal from office in the near term remain a long shot. But it’s not unlikely that the train has left the station as of the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse. Realpolitik suggests a couple of alternative outcomes. The quicker one is that the GOP power structure turns on the President, and turns him out via the 25th Amendment. The slower hinges on the Democratic Party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term election – which would put us on a timeline not unlike the Nixon-Watergate scenario."

And as elaborated in my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (published in 2018, see pages 9-10):

" . . . a Trump ouster would be due not before mid-March 2019. Notice that the Jupiter-Neptune square in January (14° 22’) in the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) makes a T-Square tying into the President’s natal tenth house Sun-Uranus and its opposition to his fourth house (lunar eclipse) Moon This is also in effect for the June and September appearances of the Jupiter-Neptune square."

"Apart from the Jupiter-Neptune square to his natal full moon eclipse – suggesting the public and the GOP lose confidence in him, there’s also the Saturn-Pluto conjunction opposing his natal Saturn: authority comes down hard fits this transit very well, particularly during the close approaches of April-June and December 2019. An external event such as a political removal from office is only one of the possibilities, of course. Internal factors such as health cannot be ruled out: he is obviously not a robust physical specimen."

The above two paragraphs may have seemed unthinkable when they were written last year. But the Democrats now hold the House, and the formal impeachment inquiry is now a reality as of September 24 – just three days after the second Jupiter-Neptune square, and only six days after Saturn’s direct station sets the Ringed Planet back in motion towards an alignment with Pluto.

All things considered, the financial and political crises currently in progress will remain in the forefront all through October – and won’t even really crest until late December early January.

Jupiter remains within a few degrees of its waning square to Neptune through October 13. Meanwhile the Saturn-Pluto conjunction looms in the background until early December, when it comes to within just a few degrees of its January 12 alignment; accentuated by a Venus bridge between the two which will be in effect from December 8 through the 14th. Saturn and Pluto stay within a degree of exact conjunction from December 31 through January 24, so this is a long way from over.

Mercury Max

There’ll be lots of twists and turns along the way this month, especially from the 20th onward, under the aegis of the third and final Mercury Max cycle of the year. Mercury Max, in brief, is a phase in the Sun-Earth-Mercury relationship during which Mercury makes its close approach to Earth (perigee). It’s a cycle that includes the infamous Mercury retrograde - the bogeyman of old school astrology. But there’s a lot more to it than superstitions about retrogradation. In fact, Mercury Max is an astronomically defined real phenomenon – which means that it has absolutely nothing to do with such traditional silliness as the "shadow" or "storm" periods of Mercury.

To get a handle on Mercury Max, see pages 13-19 in my 2019 World Forecast Highlights. For now, suffice it to say that the current Mercury Max extends from October 20 through November 28, with peak points on those two dates as well as October 31 and November 11 (all in effect from three days before to three days after).

2019 MERCURY MAX CYCLES

Max-E	S-Rx	Cnj. SUN	S-D	Max-W
FEB 27, 2019	MAR 5, 2019	MAR 15, 2019	MAR 28, 2019	APR 11, 2019
JUN 23, 2019	JUL 7, 2019	JUL 21, 2019	AUG 1, 2019	AUG 9, 2019
OCT 20, 2019	OCT 31, 2019	NOV 11, 2019	NOV 20, 2019	NOV 28, 2019

Max-E = Mercury (Evening Star) Max. Elongation East of Sun (Max begins)
S-Rx = Retrograde Station (Retrograde GBegins)
Cnj. SU = Inferior Conjunction with Sun
S-D = Direct Station (Retrograde Ends)
Max-W = Mercury (Morning Star) Max. Elongation West of Sun (Max ends)

The Mercury Max effect will be felt continuously throughout this period; but most especially around those five peak dates. What effect? It’s an amplified focus on all things Mercurial: thought, communication, transportation, commerce, information and infrastructure. Concentrate on such issues: they need more minding and more attention to keep them on track. Distraction leads to disruption! Have your backups and backup plans ready to hand. Wanna see the Mercury Max comedy of errors in action? Watch Trump screw up his own impeachment: Neptune in the heavens squares his natal Uranus, as Jupiter activates his natal lunar eclipse, Pluto opposes his natal Saturn, and Mars crosses over his natal Jupiter. The man’s chart is a cosmic piñata this month, particularly during the last ten days.

Bear in mind that Mercury Max tends to correspond to problematic outbreaks of space weather. This includes solar storms (e.g. X-Ray bursts, Coronal Mass Ejections) and geomagnetic storms at the Kp4-5 level or higher. You’ll know them when you see them: unusual auroral displays, and disruptions in electrical and electronic devices and infrastructure. The human nervous system is included in this: it’s a bioelectric network. When it goes haywire, misfires and mistakes happen.

Space weather is reflected in weather here on Earth, be it noted. There are the usual peaks in storm, tide and seismic activity within plus or minus three days of new and full moons – with even bigger peaks when there’s a SuperMoon or eclipse in the picture. This month, the full moon on the 13th anchors an October 10-16 shock window, while the new moon on the 28th sits in the middle of the October 25-31 shock window. The latter also picks up on the October 31 Mercury retrograde station and a Mars square to Saturn, suggesting that this will be the biggest geophysical stress period of the month.

Check Your Chart

In closing, here are a few personal pointers for the month ahead . . .

If you were born under significant placements around 15-20° in the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – particularly the latter) then October is a time for keeping especially focused and aware; especially around the end of the month. This is the zone energized by Saturn and Pluto’s October transits. Fall-proofing your life as best you can: that’s what’s called for now, both literally and figuratively.

And then there’s the area around 15-25° in the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces – particularly the latter two), currently emphasized by the transits of Jupiter and Neptune. If your own birth chart features an emphasis on these degrees, fantasy and imagination are focal points this month. Enlightenment or delusion? That’s the question . . .

Acknowledgments

All mundane astrological charts as well as eclipse and astro-locality maps are set for the Universal Time (UT) of the event, and calculated and produced using Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire Gold Version 7.0.8. Charts are set for the location of the Great Pyramid - a purely arbitrary choice, since location is irrelevant to these charts. Unless sotherwise noted, sky map images are screen captures from the Pocket Universe or Star Rover apps for iPhone, or produced by Starry Night for Windows; storm tracks are screen captures from The Weather Channel app for iPhone; and earthquake maps are screen captures from the QuakeFeed or QuakeWatch apps for iPhone. Any market images are screen captures from the default iPhone Stocks app, unless otherwise noted. Weather images and storm tracks are screen captures from the Weather Channel app for iPhone.

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa) 800-527-8761 data/message 480-753-6251 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA www.astropro.com